Next-gen iPad could boost 4G LTE adoption

Trent Nouveau, 6th March 2012

Apple's next-gen iPad is expected to feature support for 4G LTE, which could help significantly boost adoption of the increasingly popular connectivity standard.

"It's going to dramatically improve video consumption," UBS analyst John Hodulik told Reuters. "This is the device people want. They want the fastest speed. They want high resolution."

According to Hodulik, US consumers will likely pay extra cash to watch high-quality video on the go - providing Verizon wireless and AT&T with a tidy revenue boost.

However, Gartner analyst Van Baker seemed to disagree with Hodulik's assessment, opining that it would be an uphill battle convincing consumers to pay for iPad services with faster speeds. Indeed, the cheaper WiFi iPad is currently the most popular iteration of Apple's tablet.

"[True], it's very important for a decent size subset of the users, probably somewhere in the 10 to 15 percent range... [But] For 85 to 90 percent of people, it's just not going to matter," said Baker.

Meanwhile, Frost & Sullivan's analyst Phil Harpur emphasized that success of the new iPad would be "critical" to Cupertino if it was to continue dominating the global tablet market - with Android attempting to play catch up and Windows 8 devices waiting in the wings.

"A lot will depend how receptive the market is to the new features offered by iPad 3, two of which are believed to be quad-core processing and 4G-LTE capabilities.

"While [the] iPad 2 offered only minor incremental upgrades, this time the market will be expecting a lot more," he added.